Quote:
Originally Posted by elhigh
I kinda like HF but it's sort of the Big Lots of tools - some of it's crap. The discriminating shopper has a good chance of getting a great deal. The random shopper has a good chance of getting a tool that will hold up just long enough for the receipt to be thrown away.
My Pittsburgh 1/2" drive wrenches are fantastic. Love 'em. Chinese or maybe Taiwan, and I don't care. Dang, they're tough. And in the same breath, I've got some nameless screwdrivers I just nabbed because they were cheap and bright orange so I could keep track of them - they're for the junkyard bag. I should've just left them at the junkyard. I know why they're nameless - I sure as heck wouldn't want MY name on them.
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All of my tools end up in the junkyard bag at some point.
I also buy broken tools from people, usually for $0.25 or $0.50.
I can fix ratchets and stuff, which makes it worth it to me. Sometimes, I'll even buy broken sockets, if they're cracked and I can cut the cracked section and just make the socket shorter. I've also bought them so that I could cut the side out and make them fit on weird nuts or bolts, some of which have flanges and the like.
Also, broken sockets make nice holders for allen (hex) wrenches, and you can braze them in so that you can use them on ratchets, keep track of them on socket bandoleers, etc. or use them for driver bits, etc.
I also have several bolts that I've ground grooves perpendicular to the threads so that I can use them to clean out the threads on engine blocks. They end up looking like taps, but they're not sharp. If you can get them started in a hole in aluminum or something, they'll still cut threads though.